This blog runs parallel to a new poetry blog 'Poetry Pinfold' (poetrypinfold.blogspot.com), and a new blog with poems in Dutch (bartnooteboomgedichten.blogspot.com)

Monday, August 11, 2014

158. Analytical and continental philosophy

There is
supposed to be a rift between analytical philosophy, with a mostly
Anglo-Saxon tradition, and continental philosophy, mostly from
continental Europe. What is the difference? Bernard Williams said that analytical
philosophy was a matter not of substance but of style:

‘ .. a
certain way of going on, which involves argument, distinctions, and, so far as
it remembers to try to achieve it and succeeds, moderately plain speech’.[1]

But
continental philosophy, like any philosophy, also entails ‘argument and
distinctions’. I admit that often it is difficult to read, obscure, not
‘moderately plain speech’, but that also occurs, though indeed less, in
analytical philosophy.

So, if the
distinction is to be meaningful, it must lie elsewhere.

First, it
has to do with a striving for logic, rigour, parsimony and clarity, in
analytical philosophy, while continental philosophy explores and often crosses
the boundaries of clarity and logic, venturing into ambiguities, which indeed
regularly derails into obscurity and rampant verbosity.

Second,
related to this, analytical philosophy tends to separate intellectual,
analytical activity from practical judgement, and takes pride in conducting
only the first.

For example,
Semantics, theory of meaning and truth, is seen as separable from, and
prior to, pragmatics, practical language use. Discussion about what
goodness is, in meta-ethics, is separable from, and prior to, considering what
is good, in ethics.

Continental
philosophy, but also American pragmatism, turn it around: practical judgement
feeds (or should feed) intellect, practice feeds theory, and experience feeds
understanding. While it is the job of theory to guide practice, it cannot give
closure in regulating it. It gives partial and temporary guidelines, not
universal, fixed rules. Pragmatics dominates semantics, and ethical judgement
dominates meta-ethics.

Continental
philosophy’s ventures beyond limits of meaning, into ambiguity, issue not from
neglect but from conviction, steps deemed necessary. Logic and rigour have
their limits and it is a task of philosophy to explore them. Exploration of
limits, of knowledge and meaning, in ‘transcendental’ philosophy, is a goal of
much philosophy. Heidegger is a paragon of such style and effort, but not
necessarily the most attractive one.

Third, the
term ‘analytical’ indicates that ‘proper’ thought engages in trying to
understand wholes by taking them apart into their components, and processes or
phenomena by reducing them to one or few basic principles. It is reductionist.
Argument has become synonymous with analysis.

Continental
philosophy, by contrast, is holistic. The meanings of parts depend on
the meaning of the whole, and processes or phenomena can be irreducibly complex
and variable. Truth is warranted assertability, and ethics is debatable,
depending on context and culture.

Now, can
one combine elements from analytical and continental philosophy?

One can do
one’s best to be clear about complexity and ambiguity. One can alternate
between analysis and practical judgement. One can combine the notions of the
whole being a function of parts with that of parts being a function of the
whole. The hermeneutic circle, discussed in item 36 of this blog, does that. The
notions of ‘sense’ and ‘reference’, taken from analytical (Fregean) philosophy,
help understand the hermeneutic circle.

Wittgenstein
is an example. Often seen as an analytical philosopher, in fact he played a
crucial role in continental philosophy, to the chagrin of his teacher Bertrand
Russell, with ideas comparable to those of Heidegger, as I will discuss in following items in this
blog.

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